Nearly half of San Francisco residents feel unsafe in their neighborhoods

By Angela Hokanson, Bay City News Service

June 6, 2006

SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) - Nearly 44 percent of San Francisco residents feel unsafe or somewhat unsafe in their neighborhood, according to a survey on residents' perceptions of public safety administered by the San Francisco Safety Network.

And more than 50 percent of residents of the Bayview-Hunters Point, Tenderloin, and Mission districts reported in the survey that they feel unsafe in their neighborhoods.

Safety Network, a community-based organization dedicated to increasing public safety, administered approximately 2,400 surveys during a one-month period to San Francisco residents.

Survey respondents cited factors such as gangs, unemployment, lack of police, the availability of guns, and the presence of traffic and speeding cars in contributing to making them feel unsafe in their neighborhoods.

Fifty-eight percent of respondents said they had felt unsafe riding public transportation in San Francisco. And more than half of the respondents said they feel unsafe in their local parks.

Survey participants recommended that public safety could be strengthened by improving the relationship between police and the community; by providing youth development programs; by creating cleaner parks and streets; and by continuing to offer programs and services for seniors and diverse groups.

The Safety Network will use the survey results and work with community leaders to develop a public safety action plan for the city as a whole and for individual city districts.

The Safety Network is funded by the mayor's office of criminal justice.

Copyright © 2006 by Bay City News, Inc. -- Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.

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